30 June, 2004

However, if passed, call your bumbling boob and tell them that the slimy bastards are wrong, and that they should then work to get the S.2498 Amendment off of the bill it is attached to.

For those that do not know, and based upon how the Hughes Amendment was passed in 1986 as a rider to F.O.P.A, all that is needed to happen, is for someone to blink during the last fifteen minutes of debate (which is how the Hughes Amendment was attached to the F.O.P.A.) on a "must pass" bill and the AWB will be permanent, and there are more than enough Republicrats willing to sell us out to get it passed.

A big thank you to the fine Texas Gentleman, Q.M.P., for the following:

"Hillary Clinton's 506-page memoirs have come out. So much of her personality shines through, that in the end, you, too, will want to sleep with an intern." -Craig Kilborn

"In Hillary Clinton's new book 'Living History,' Hillary details what it was like meeting Bill Clinton, falling in love with him, getting married, and living a passionate, wonderful life as husband and wife. Then on page two, the trouble starts." - Jay Leno

"Hillary Clinton, our junior senator from New York, announced that she has no intentions of ever, ever running for office of the President of the United States. Her husband, Bill Clinton, is bitterly disappointed. He is crushed. There go his dreams of becoming a two-impeachment family." -David Letterman

"Last night, Senator Hillary Clinton hosted her first party in her new home in Washington. People said it was a lot like the parties she used to host at the White House. In fact, even the furniture was the same." -Jay Leno

"CNN found that Hillary Clinton is the most admired woman in America. Women admire her because she's strong and successful. Men admire her because she allows her husband to cheat and get away with it." -Jay Leno

"Hillary Clinton is the junior senator from the great state of New York. When they swore her in, she used the Clinton family Bible. You know, the one with only seven commandments." -David Letterman

Hmm, we just can't tell what is Constitutional or not- I wonder if it is because the Constitution is stupidly considered a "Living Document" by the blundering, stealing, bleating asses we have for most of those in the legal, governmental, teaching and political class (damn! I despise having to call them a class). And to think, that these are the same â€œnine old menâ€� that told us that the Incumbent Protection Act To Muzzle Dissension is constitutional...

Also related to the word of the government that you know you can trust, we read that the SCOTUS will decide if John and Jane Doe, "the couple, former citizens of an Eastern bloc nation," who defected at the request of the CIA and who promised life-time support to the couple, and which now says that they have received enough compensation for the CIA's requested act of treason, can even sue the CIA.

However, speaking of thieving, it appears that the, oh-so hard hit profession of teaching in Texas, has found another way to stuff their pockets with the gold of others! There was a loophole, that was eliminated today from the Social Security laws, that allowed teachers (I refuse to use the word educator) to be hired by their school districts, just for a day mind you, as manual labor (e.g.- a janitor) so that they can double-dip into monies that they truly never paid into because of their private retirement funds.

Now, we at the Whose Paranoid household know a bit about Halloween, particularly since Mr. and Mrs. Paranoid were wedded on Halloween (to piss of the evil nun- but that is another story) and we have never, ever, put out a leprechaun for any sort of Halloween display. Moreover, and in all honesty, we have never even put one out for a St. Patrick's Day celebration.

Methinks that Miss Edmonson is trying to use a double standard, but then again, this chapter of the NAACP, is not immune to small or large scandals, as Miss Edmonson has only been president for roughly six months, and her arguments seem to always revolve around money.

The second is about the Young Conservatives of Texas, whom are calling a Junteenth dinner celebration a double standard, as they see that the meals served at the Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches on June 18th as, well, hypocritical and had this to say:

Red-Pop, fried chicken and watermelon sounds like a tasty meal to me, maybe Lori and the other folks are angry that they missed their free meal, as Eva Pack said: "We ran out of food, and no one was offended."

The last link truly describes political correctness run amok.

An historical tablet, that was left for posterity has had a cloth covering placed upon it to hide these words:

Point of history dear readers, the Indians had great skills and an inherent understanding of the untamed lands about them, because their level of knowledge was simply a very basic level that served them daily in the World they built. Not that it was not honed to a keen edge, but basic, and when the white man came, his knowledge, skills, and tools were on levels that were leaps and bounds beyond the Indians, as everyone knows- very different in nature yes, but still leaps and bounds beyond that, and which allowed them to overtake and overcome the resistance provided by the many disparate and warring tribes of the then, North American continent.

"Robert W. "Bob" Bemer, 84, who helped invent the language used by most of the world's computers to translate text to numbers and who was the first scientist to warn of the Y2K problem, died of cancer June 22 at his home on Possum Kingdom Lake in Texas.

Without the invention of the computer code ASCII, there would be no e-mail, no World Wide Web, no laser printers and no video games. Mr. Bemer, known as "the father of ASCII," created the code in 1961 by assigning standard numeric values to letters, numbers, punctuation marks and other characters.

"We had over 60 different ways to represent characters in computers," Mr. Bemer told Computerworld magazine in 1999, describing the time before the American Standard Code for Information Interchange was created. "It was a real Tower of Babel."

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department is dispatching teams of federal agents to 15 cities struggling with violent crime problems despite a dropping U.S. crime rate, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Thursday.

Ashcroft told reporters that the effort would be targeted at "the hottest zones of criminal activity" in cities where high murder and violence rates persist despite a violent crime rate that is at a 30-year low nationwide, based on federal victimization statistics.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, which had a record 69 homicides committed in 2003, is one of the 15 cities receiving assistance.

The initiative also is aimed at reducing the traditional summer increase in murder and violent crime, he said. Firearms offenses are the main focus because they are often more readily proven in court than other crimes.

So, the local murder is now a federal crime, and the "Impact Teams" are on their way to met-out swift punishments...

I also received this via E-mail from Mr. Sharkey, and did not read it until I had done a Google search on this and found a similar title. He had received this information in from a friend of his who had this to say:

"Now I live in Chattanooga. There is NO serious crime problem here. So just what is Ashcroft up to, unless the feds are trying to take direct control of American cities?"

That was my first thought too, and then, my second thought was that this is a political ploy; either way, I hope they are not like these troops, but knowing the F-Troop, as all Americans do, and should, at least since 1992 (actually 1934) or at the latest 1993, we had better count on the murder rate raising.

I love to read, I also love to see a good movie or to watch good television when I can- which really is not often.

Nevertheless, good books, movies, and television just does not happen that often, and particularly of late. The Debate Show is another piece of doggerel that exemplifies, exactly the nature of what I am writing about.

This is a show that promoted itself as a serious look at current topics and, as appears to be the latest trend of â€œrealityâ€� shows, actually was designed to mock and ridicule.

Lauren Weinstein is the co-founder of, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility, and recently had the opportunity to be on the show, however, her intuition kept cropping up and she did not feel comfortable and did several searches on this show, which proved her unease (paranoia in some books) correct. You can read about her experience here. Though, I must point out, that I think her a bit untruthful for not providing the links to the information that confirmed her suspicions (again, someone would say paranoia).

Nevertheless, I will- as you see, Jim March, and the information that he provided in the start of this thread, and later here, is what I am certain she gleaned her information from.

She may, or may not, be a hoplophobe, I do not know. What I do know, is that Mr. Marchâ€™s experience and postingâ€™s, occurred before Miss Weinsteinâ€™s, and further, both Mr. March, along with the fine folks at The High Road, did a superb job of discovering information on these recreants, and that they then spent the time and effort to pass along this information to other forums and boards to warn and prevent the same from occurring to others.

23 June, 2004

"More and more Iâ€™m beginning to think that Iâ€™m not a conservative at all, but a libertarian. But I think itâ€™s the conservatives who are leaving me and not the other way around.

I believe and conservatives for the most part used to believe that government should let law-abiding citizens alone. I also believe in small government, low taxes, individual responsibility as well as being let alone.

Republicans, who under Ronald Reagan, at least, were the conservative party, used to believe these things, too. But that was then and this is now.

And what is now keeps getting worse.

Yesterday the supreme court voted five to four that the police can stop a person and demand for any reason or no reason at all that that person identify himself. or herself.

The five members of the court who decided that â€œthe right to remain silentâ€� no longer exists were the five most conservative members--Rehnquist, Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy and â€œOâ€™Connor.

The five voted to uphold a Nevada state law that makes it a crime for a person to refuse to give his name when stopped for what a policeman deems to be suspicious behavior. Eighteen other states have similar laws.

The courtâ€™s ruling may not seem significant but the act is it is one more little step toward turning this nation into a police state

Jack decided to go skiing with his buddy, Bob. So they loaded up Jack's mini van and headed north.

After driving for a few hours, they got caught in a terrible blizzard. So they pulled into a nearby farm and asked the attractive lady who answered the door if they could spend the ight. "I realize it's terrible weather out there and I have this huge house all to myself, but I'm recently widowed," she explained. "I'm afraid the neighbors will talk if I let you stay in my
house."

"Don't worry," Jack said. "We'll be happy to sleep in the barn. And if the weather breaks, we'll be gone at first light." The lady agreed, and the two men found their way to the barn and settled in for the night. Come morning, the weather had cleared, and they got on their way. They enjoyed a great weekend of skiing.

But about nine months later, Jack got an unexpected letter from an attorney. It took him a few minutes to figure it out, but he finally determined that it was from the attorney of that attractive widow he had met on the ski weekend.

He dropped in on his friend Bob and asked, "Bob, do you remember that good-looking widow from the farm we stayed at on our ski holiday up North about 9 months ago?"

"Yes, I do." replied Bob.

"Did you, err, happen to get up in the middle of the night, go up to the house and pay her a visit?"

"Well, um, yes," Bob said, a little embarrassed about being found out. "I have to admit that I did."

Legal gun ownership is slowly being killed off - up to 90 percent of licence applications made this year have been refused.

Gunshop owners in Johannesburg said it is near-impossible for anyone - but particularly black applicants - to obtain a licence. They fear that it may become even more difficult when the new Firearms Control Act comes into operation next week.

22 June, 2004

MOJAVE, CALIFORNIA -- There were tense times during the sky-blistering flight of SpaceShipOne here this morning. Fighting control problems, pilot Mike Melvill wrestled with several anomalies that cut short a pre-planned altitude mark.

However, the first non-governmental rocket ship did succeed in flying to the edge of space, earning the craftâ€™s pilot, Mike Melvill, the first set of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-issued commercial astronaut wings.

At a post-landing press briefing, the 63-year old Melvill described a series of technical snags that haunted his record-setting flight. Right after motor ignition, the pilot said the craft rolled 90 degrees to the left, then 90 degrees to the right. "It has never ever done that before," he explained.

AND

Upon touchdown and climbing out of the SpaceShipOneâ€™s cockpit, Melvill was greeted by Apollo moonwalker, Buzz Aldrin.

"It meant a lot," Melvill said. "To have him come up and shake my hand and congratulate me and tell me that Iâ€™ve joined the clubâ€¦that was serious stuff."

The End of Power
Without American hegemony the world would likely return to the dark ages.

BY NIALL FERGUSON
Monday, June 21, 2004 12:01 a.m. EDT

We tend to assume that power, like nature, abhors a vacuum. In the history of world politics, it seems, someone is always bidding for hegemony. Today it is the United States; a century ago it was Britain. Before that, it was the French, the Spaniards and so on. The 19th-century German historian Leopold von Ranke, doyen of the study of statecraft, portrayed modern European history as an incessant struggle for mastery, in which a balance of power was possible only through recurrent conflict.

Power, in other words, is not a natural monopoly; the struggle for mastery is both perennial and universal. The "unipolarity" identified by commentators following the Soviet collapse cannot last much longer, for the simple reason that history hates a hyperpower. Sooner or later, challengers will arise, and back we must go to a multipolar, multipower world.

But what if this view is wrong? What if the world is heading for a period when there is no hegemon? What if, instead of a balance of power, there is an absence of power? Such a situation is not unknown in history. Though the chroniclers of the past have long been preoccupied with the achievements of great powers--whether civilizations, empires or nation states--they have not wholly overlooked eras when power has receded. Unfortunately, the world's experience with power vacuums is hardly encouraging. Anyone who dislikes U.S. hegemony should bear in mind that, instead of a multipolar world of competing great powers, a world with no hegemon at all may be the real alternative to it. This could turn out to mean a new Dark Age of waning empires and religious fanaticism; of endemic rapine in the world's no-go zones; of economic stagnation and a retreat by civilization into a few fortified enclaves.

A sweeping mental health initiative will be unveiled by President George W Bush in July. The plan promises to integrate mentally ill patients fully into the community by providing "services in the community, rather than institutions," according to a March 2004 progress report entitled New Freedom Initiative (http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/newfreedom/toc-2004.html). While some praise the plan's goals, others say it protects the profits of drug companies at the expense of the public.

Bush established the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health in April 2002 to conduct a "comprehensive study of the United States mental health service delivery system." The commission issued its recommendations in July 2003. Bush instructed more than 25 federal agencies to develop an implementation plan based on those recommendations.

The president's commission found that "despite their prevalence, mental disorders often go undiagnosed" and recommended comprehensive mental health screening for "consumers of all ages," including preschool children. According to the commission, "Each year, young children are expelled from preschools and childcare facilities for severely disruptive behaviours and emotional disorders." Schools, wrote the commission, are in a "key position" to screen the 52 million students and 6 million adults who work at the schools.

Curiously, there was very little newsgroup postings related to this project, only thirty-six (36) whereas there was nine-hundred and seventeen (917) hits via Google. However, there was much more on the initiative itself, and you can find the results here and there, but again, very little traffic on the public newsgroups on this topic- though I suspect that this will change quite a bit over the next week or so.

I do not fully think that this may be a bit of FUD, and am posting this for your, and my, continued research, and please remember- TRUST NO ONE.

21 June, 2004

Mr. Sharkey sent me the latest essay, by L. Neil Smith, entitled, Where Do We Go From Here, and it is well worth reading. A snippet:

"The October, 2003 issue of Discover contains one of the saddest letters I've ever read. Gil Bell, of Duluth, Georgia, writes " ... one would have to conclude that travel out of our solar system is impossible. The fusion, fission, and antimatter engines require too much fuel ... The laser sail is doomed by the fact that building a 6,600-mile-wide collecting mirror is simply not feasible, and ... a 600-mile-wide sail would be torn apart by cosmic debris on a daily basis. And why build a fusion ramjet when there's no fuel in space to run it, and its design would not allow it to attain the speed it needs?

"The fusion or fission engine concepts would be useful in getting around out own solar system, but what's the use in traveling to other planets in our neighborhood? Venus will never be inhabitable and neither will Mars or any of the Jovian planets or their moons, and changing the environment on another planet will never be within our capabilities. It is fun to speculate on way that humans might accomplish interstellar travel, but in the end it is just more science fiction."

There are lot of unsupported assertions in Mr. Bell's letter, and a great many factual errors (most of them, I'm afraid, based on an incredible ignorance of history), but the saddest thing about it is its spirit of defeat. As I said in a recent essay, Americans seem to have given up on the future. This letter from Discover is typical and symptomatic.

But it doesn't speak for everyone."

On a similar vein, I had a chance this past weekend to watch the box set of the cancelled television series, by Joss Whedon, FIREFLY. This is arguably the finest adult show, ever to air on the networks, whose underlying theme is freedom and liberty. The show's fan base, is so strong, that they are actually making it into a movie that is due to screen, late spring or early summer, of next year. I cannot express my appreciation of this show enough (and am utterly amazed that it even aired on network television) and suggest you go get it, or at the very least, beg, borrow, or rent a copy.

I find it curious that the NASA channel has not one word about this historic event, and, NASA's main page does not say anything about it either- they must not like real competition. Of course, we have known this for years.

Teddy's anniversary(The link is to the July 21st, 2004, edition of the Washington Times Column- Inside Politics)

"The opening night of next month's Democratic convention in Boston is set to feature an emotional party tribute to hometown hero Ted Kennedy, who has served in office longer than every other senator but one," New York Post columnist Eric Fettmann writes.

"Guess no one at the Democratic National Committee took a close look at the calendar: That July 26 salute to Teddy just happens to coincide with ... the 35th anniversary of Chappaquiddick," Mr. Fettmann said.

"It was on July 25, 1969, that the senator appeared before a Massachusetts district court judge and, in a proceeding that lasted all of seven minutes, pleaded guilty to one count of failing to report the accident that resulted in the death of 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne.

"No jail time was imposed. The only official sanction Kennedy ever suffered was the temporary loss of his driver's license."

20 June, 2004

The House Judiciary Committee yesterday passed a bill that allows active-duty and retired law-enforcement officers to carry concealed weapons anywhere in the country.

The Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act heads to the floor of the House for a final vote before going to the Senate, where a similar bill passed as an amendment in March by a 91-8 vote. The bill permits "qualified" law-enforcement officers â€” retired, off duty and outside their jurisdiction â€” to carry a concealed weapon in any state regardless of the state's law. It passed on a 23-9 vote.

While reading the article, I trust you will notice that in all of the concerns, not one thought, let alone mention of, that what Congress is creating, again, are different levels of citizenship; or, I wonder, if that is not their exact goal? Further I wonder, if any of those traitorous criminals have ever read the Constitution, which they swore and oath to uphold and defend, and particularly Article IV of the U.S. Constitution (let alone the Second Amendment).

Lastly I wonder, just how many rolls of custom toilet paper they have had printed of the Constitution? Certainly, they must chuckle on the House and Senate floor when they do this, and I am sure that they also wish to wipe their asses with it daily when not in sessionâ€¦

19 June, 2004

This evening, I was reminded of one of my favorite Heinlein characters- Jubal E. Harshaw, when I remembered that the Jubal E. was taken from Jubal Early, and I then decided to do a search on General Jubal Early and then found this link- go and look.

The one thing I have never taken the time to find out is, if the name Harshaw, is an anagram for Hash War...

Vacationing from Riverton, Wyo., Hope Clarke said she had been rousted by federal agents at her cruise ship cabin door at 6:30 a.m. She was put in handcuffs on a bench warrant for failing to put away her marshmallows and hot chocolate while staying at Yellowstone National Park last year.

The catch? Clarke said she had to pay the $50 fine the same day for the federal offense of improper food storage before she was allowed to leave the park. Nonetheless, a warrant claiming she had not paid went into the federal law enforcement database. Back in the United States from Cozumel, Mexico, on Carnival's Fascination cruise ship, Clarke was awakened, cuffed, turned over to federal marshals and brought to court in leg shackles and short-shorts.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Outerbridge conceded there were some "discrepancies."

But he astonished U.S. Magistrate Judge John O'Sullivan by suggesting Clarke should be released to appear in court in Wyoming to clear up the warrant.

O'Sullivan had a copy of her citation indicating that the fine had been paid and thought that her time in jail more than covered the offense even if she hadn't paid.

If you missed this posting back on Decoration Day, it hit the news that the last Confederate Widow had died, however, it appears as if there is still at least one more and, her name is Maudie Celia Hopkins.

18 June, 2004

Today is an official Texas Holiday, though, it is commonly known as Juneteenth (though the first paragraph at the preceding link would be argued by the Jews by pointing out the existence of the Passover holiday), and you can find more information on it here.

Just one Buffalo colleague testifies as prosecutors look into acquisition of E. coli | By John Dudley Miller

Two days into hearings by a federal grand jury that is considering bioterrorism charges against a Buffalo art professor, just one of the eight colleagues of the professor subpoenaed has actually testified. Federal prosecutors may also be looking into whether another person may have illegally supplied the Escherichia coli used in one of the exhibits.

Latino community leaders and civil rights groups on Tuesday said they might take legal action to stop a U.S. Border Patrol crackdown on suspected illegal immigrants in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

"The only way to stop this is if the community comes together," said UC Riverside political science professor and local organizer Armando Navarro. "All of a sudden, the Border Patrol is hitting different parts of Southern California away from the border. Something is going on."

Navarro and other activists met at the Villasenor Branch Library in San Bernardino on Tuesday evening to coordinate their efforts against the Border Patrol, vowing to file lawsuits and engage in civil disobedience if the arrests continue.

Since June 4, agents have arrested more than 200 suspected illegal immigrants in the two counties. Agency officials said arrests are a result of a shift in tactics by one Border Patrol station based in Temecula, and not a new national crackdown.

Richard Kite, a Border Patrol spokesman with the San Diego sector, said Tuesday that there had been no recent sweeps but that the operations would continue "based on intelligence received" from law enforcement agencies or citizens.

I had breakfast with two old friends yesterday morning. The younger of the two works for the Border Patrol and we discussed some recent events. He told me of twelve (12) Brazilians who had been caught the night before, and each and everyone of the twelve (12) requested Political Asylum, because they were "homosexuales". (Actually, according to Bablefish, the spelling in Portuguese is the same as in English- my friend just used the Spanish pronunciation). After breakfast, as we were leaving, another old friend, whom I had not seen in awhile and who also works for the Border Patrol, came out to the parking lot to say hello and talk a bit, and it was nice to see him. I have several other friends who work for BP and the stories that I have heard, would really shock most citizens- particularly the ones, and there are many, that show the many agents are really not allowed to do their job properly. In fact, I know of one man, who constantly pointed out that they were not doing their job, whose hours and shifts were rotated so often, he finally shut his mouth about the lax and lack of enforcement in his sector, and this was a year after September 11th, 2001.

15 June, 2004

"Federal and state prosecutors are applying stiff antiterrorism laws adopted after the 9/11 attacks to broad, run-of-the-mill probes of political corruption, financial crimes and immigration frauds.

If the government gets its way, even routine transactions of buying or selling American homes could soon come under the scrutiny of money-laundering provisions of the USA Patriot Act. The Treasury Department, which already has caught up financial transactions in casinos, storefront check-cashing stores and auto dealers for scrutiny, wants to expand Patriot Act coverage to home purchases as well.

Since 9/11, critics say the greatest effect of new state and federal antiterrorism laws has been on crimes already covered by other laws.

Washington-area snipers John Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were both convicted under a post-9/11 Virginia antiterrorism statute making it a death-penalty offense to be involved in more than one murder in a three-year period. Muhammad was sentenced to death, and Malvo was given life imprisonment without parole."

WASHINGTON - Test subjects can't see the invisible beam from the Pentagon's new, Star Trek-like weapon, but no one has withstood the pain it produces for more than three seconds.

People who volunteered to stand in front of the directed energy beam say they felt as if they were on fire. When they stepped aside, the pain disappeared instantly.

The long-range column of millimeter-wave energy is known as the "Active Denial System" for its ability to prevent an aggressor from advancing. Senior military officials, who plan to deliver the device for troop evaluation this fall, say years of testing has produced no sign it will lead to health effects beyond perhaps causing skin to temporarily redden.

It is among the most potent of a new generation of futuristic, "less-than-lethal" weapons being developed by the Defense Department - tools that could dramatically alter the way police control riots and soldiers fight wars.

Other nonlethal devices undergoing tests include "superlubricants" that could make a road or runway too slippery for car or airplane tires to gain traction; directed sound waves to drive people away from an area; and nets able to stop cars.

Marine Col. David Karcher, who heads the Pentagon's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, says the energy beam is aimed at helping troops and police in confusing situations by offering options "between bullets and a bullhorn."

Marine Capt. Dan McSweeney, a spokesman for the Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate, pointed to "instances in Iraq where crowd situations have unfortunately ended in violence" and death.

14 June, 2004

The first article at the Orlando Sentinel tell us, in graphic detail, that Big Brother is watching us and the Tommy Thompson is giddy with glee over new toys that he will receive soon, and The WiRED NEWS article tell us how the FBI would be allowed to force others to spy on you as well via a new bill- H.R. 3179. Much more on this POS bill can be found here. This TIME article has a blurb about it as well.

13 June, 2004

Moreover, the sixtieth anniversary of D-Day really bothered me this year, as the anniversary of my fatherâ€™s death is occurs quite close to it.

He was there, in the very first wave at Omaha Beach, and I will never forget his advice, that if I ever found myself in an amphibious invasion, go in the first wave, as the enemy, though able to fire upon you, is scared- very scared, and by the time the second and third waves hit, he has his mettle and is much more dangerous.

Many have made statements of what a great man FDR was in relation to World War II, and the Great Depression. I will not, as I also remember my Fatherâ€™s utter lack of respect for him. My Father was born in the early 1920's, in an area of the Republic that is historically dirt-poor- and his family was. He was the eldest of twelve children, of which not all lived beyond their third year, and during the Great Depression, he quit school in sixth grade, so that he could get work to help feed the family, and worked on refrigerators, automobiles, along with any other work he could find-like the rest of the clan (which included running moonshine).

My Father use to say how FDR would swear, during his Fireside Chats, that there would be no war, but, just as so many other young men of his time, on Monday December 8th, 1941, he went to enlist. He was not accepted at first, due to a heart murmur, but nearly every day for seven months, he went to enlist, and finally was approved by the old doctor (whose name I have forgotten) just to get rid of him. The doctor told my Father that he would not last two months, and nearly twenty-five years later, my Father retired from the United States Army after two wars and traveling the World.

Three artists have been served subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury that will consider bioterrorism charges against a university professor whose art involves the use of simple biology equipment.

The subpoenas are the latest installment in a bizarre investigation in which members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force have mistaken an art project for a biological weapons laboratory (see background below). While most observers have assumed that the Task Force would realize the absurd error of its initial investigation of Steve Kurtz, the subpoenas indicate that the feds have instead chosen to press their "case" against the baffled professor.

Two of the subpoenaed artists--Beatriz da Costa and Steve Barnes--are, like Kurtz, members of the internationally-acclaimed Critical Art Ensemble (CAE), an artists' collective that produces artwork to educate the public about the politics of biotechnology.

They were served the subpoenas by federal agents who tailed them to an art show at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. The third artist, Paul Vanouse, is, like Kurtz, an art professor at the University at Buffalo. He has worked with CAE in the past.

The artists involved are at a loss to explain the increasingly bizarre case. "I have no idea why they're continuing (to investigate)," said Beatriz da Costa, one of those subpoenaed. "It was shocking that this investigation was ever launched. That it is continuing is positively frightening, and shows how vulnerable the PATRIOT Act has made freedom of speech in this country." Da Costa is an art professor at the University of California at Irvine.

According to the subpoenas, the FBI is seeking charges under Section 175 of the US Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, which has been expanded by the USA PATRIOT Act. As expanded, this law prohibits the possession of "any biological agent, toxin, or delivery system" without the justification of "prophylactic, protective, bona-fide research, or other peaceful purpose." (See http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/175.html for the 1989 law and
http://www.ehrs.upenn.edu/protocols/patriot/sec817.html for its USA PATRIOT Act expansion.)

Even under the expanded powers of the USA PATRIOT Act, it is difficult to understand how anyone could view CAE's art as anything other than a"peaceful purpose." The equipment seized by the FBI consisted mainly of CAE's most recent project, a mobile DNA extraction laboratory to test store-bought food for possible contamination by genetically modified grains and organisms; such equipment can be found in any university's basic biology lab and even in many high schools (see "Lab Tour" at http://www.critical-art.net/biotech/free/ for more details).

The grand jury in the case is scheduled to convene June 15 in Buffalo, New York. Here, the jury will decide whether or not to indict Steve Kurtz on the charges brought by the FBI. A protest is being planned at 9 a.m. on June 15 outside the courthouse at 138
Delaware Ave. in Buffalo.

When I first received this in, earlier this afternoon, I was unable to read more than the first paragraph. Upon returning, I was quite happy that was all that I had read at the time, I would not want to have choked, via a proxy cup of coffee, upon this level of stupidity.

However, I do not enjoy theirart, others, perhaps do, and there is absolutely no reason to drop one dime of public funds on this investigation. Further, all the fine folks involved in the decision to continue this debacle, should have their paychecks docked the costs of such an asinine happening.

02 June, 2004

"Democratic senator â€” and certain presidential nominee â€” John F. Kerry, gave the middle finger to a Vietnam veteran at the Vietnam Memorial Wall on Memorial Day morning," NewsMax.com reported yesterday.

"Ted Sampley, a former Green Beret who served two full tours in Vietnam, spotted Kerry and his Secret Service detail at about 9 a.m. Monday morning at the Wall. Sampley walked up to Kerry, extended his hand and said, 'Senator, I am Ted Sampley, the head of Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, and I am here to escort you away from the Wall because you do not belong here.'

"At that point, a Secret Service officer told Sampley to back away from Kerry. Sampley moved about 6 feet away and opened his jacket to reveal a HANOI JOHN T-shirt," NewsMax reported.

"Kerry then began talking to a group of schoolchildren. Sampley then showed the T-shirt to the children and said, 'Kerry does not belong at the Wall because he betrayed the brave soldiers who fought in Vietnam.'

"Just then, Kerry â€” in front of the schoolchildren, other visitors and Secret Service agents â€” brazenly 'flashed the bird' at Sampley and then yelled out to everyone, 'Sampley is a felon!'

"Kerry was referring to an incident 12 years ago when Sampley confronted Sen. John McCain's chief aide, Mark Salter, in a Senate stairwell after McCain repeatedly offended POW families at a Senate POW hearing. Sampley, whose father-in-law at that time was MIA in Laos, followed Salter into the stairwell and, when they emerged, Salter had a bloody lip and a broken nose."